Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 17:43     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
I agree in the sense that the whole process for applying to and attending college in this country should be much more streamlined, affordable, and practical than it is. The current system is very broken.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 17:22     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Is this guy basically saying a kid with a 3.3 and 1300 shouldn't apply to HYP?
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 17:07     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The thread subject heading should reach "In opposition to snowball's-chance-in-hell schools."


Op here. I don’t think my observations apply to just kids applying to T10 schools. I think it could apply to almost any school depending on your student. If you had a kid with a 3.0 and 1000 sat I would advise you against applying to UMD and VT. My point is the advice to “take your shot” is bad advice.


but that kid is not objectively competitive. only take a shot if you are objectively competitive....otherwise its a waste.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 16:31     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Anonymous wrote:Hear hear! If a kid really wants to go for a reach, that’s great. But for the reasons you outlined, I would not push my kid to do so.


+1 The standard advice of x number of reaches, targets, safeties seemed pointless to my kids. Each did apply to a reach (in state publics since any other reach would be unaffordable). But I think both did that only because they thought they were supposed to. One was WL at her reach and the other denied. But really those were not either kid's first choice. They both preferred a safety/likely.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 16:28     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Anonymous wrote:The thread subject heading should reach "In opposition to snowball's-chance-in-hell schools."


Op here. I don’t think my observations apply to just kids applying to T10 schools. I think it could apply to almost any school depending on your student. If you had a kid with a 3.0 and 1000 sat I would advise you against applying to UMD and VT. My point is the advice to “take your shot” is bad advice.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 16:28     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Anonymous wrote:I feel like this is a post I need to wait until April 1 (when all decisions are in) to comment on. My short take is, sometimes you don't know what's a reach until after the fact. Because my kid is at a title 1 high school, we don't have to pay application fees, score report fees or CSS fees. So absent the cost factor, if she wants to write essays to see if she's got a shot at some Ivys or the like, go for it. We'll find out in 2.5 months if any of it was worth doing.


i want to bump up an old post:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1176381.page
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 16:22     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
I feel like this is a post I need to wait until April 1 (when all decisions are in) to comment on. My short take is, sometimes you don't know what's a reach until after the fact. Because my kid is at a title 1 high school, we don't have to pay application fees, score report fees or CSS fees. So absent the cost factor, if she wants to write essays to see if she's got a shot at some Ivys or the like, go for it. We'll find out in 2.5 months if any of it was worth doing.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 16:03     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The thread subject heading should reach "In opposition to snowball's-chance-in-hell schools."


Agree.

Reach =/= no chance whatsoever


Not true for all selective schools. But applying to T10 in RD, is absolutely a waste.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 16:02     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Anonymous wrote:OP you are stating the obvious. If your kids never had a snowflake's chance in hell of getting into a top 10 you wasted everyone's time applying to those places.



Your prob was targeting T10. If you targeted T11-25 you'd have had more success. Btdt.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 16:01     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Anonymous wrote:But then should anyone apply to a top30 school? Because aren't they reaches for everyone?

They are reaches for everyone, but they are bigger reaches for some, like OP's situation, where the student did not have scores in range, than for others.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 15:58     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Anonymous wrote:But then should anyone apply to a top30 school? Because aren't they reaches for everyone?


If you have a hook I'd do it, if you aren't, then whatever the schools institutional priority is, I can promise you that it's never my kid, so in many ways it just ended up being a waste of time and energy.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 15:57     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Anonymous wrote:The thread subject heading should reach "In opposition to snowball's-chance-in-hell schools."


Agree.

Reach =/= no chance whatsoever
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 15:53     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
The thread subject heading should reach "In opposition to snowball's-chance-in-hell schools."
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 15:51     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
But then should anyone apply to a top30 school? Because aren't they reaches for everyone?
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2025 15:51     Subject: In opposition to reach schools
Anonymous wrote:My personal favorite is my son got an email from U Chicago saying "even though deadline has passed you can still apply".

Ummm, yeah, not going to add to your pile of denials, pretty sure no one who applies after the deadline has a shot, they just want to pad their acceptance %


100%. Good school but no one games rankings more than they do.